The state park system, which runs Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park 50 miles west of Jacksonville, had actually set up the town hall on Monday to decide where to place the monument. But “the discussion never got that far,” according to the News Service of Florida:
Passions ran high, at one point erupting in a spontaneous chorus of “Dixie” led by a black man, H.K. Edgerton, who called Union soldiers rapists and wielded his large Confederate flag like a conductor’s baton as the audience sang.
Speakers blasted the proposal as disturbing hallowed ground in a rural community where most families stay for generations.
“Putting a Union monument at Olustee would be like placing a memorial to Jane Fonda at the entrance to the Vietnam memorial,” said Leon Duke, a wounded veteran.
Edgerton has made a living for years off the the controversial contradiction he embodies: a black man traveling the country espousing the greatness of the Confederacy and its symbol, the Confederate flag. More Edgerton background here and here.
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“Edgerton has made a living for years off the the controversial contradiction he embodies . . .”
“Making a living” implies that he is earning a salary or getting paid in some way for what he does. Is that accurate? Does he get money for attending these rallies?
Curious, he was, at one point, getting paid. Not sure about now.
Thank you for clarifying.
These two links will tell you everything you need to know about HK and his relationship with Confederates:
http://deadconfederates.com/2012/08/09/black-confederates-a-subsidiary-of-dixie-outfitters/
http://barberandcompany.com/barber_store/view_details?department_id=20&item_id=13652
[…] (Ashvegas) H.K. Edgerton, former head of the Asheville branch of the NAACP, was part of a group that recently made a scene at a Florida meeting to discuss honoring Union soldiers, according to Gawker. The state park system, which runs Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park 50 miles west of Jacksonville, had actually set up the town hall on Monday to decide where to place the monument. But “the discussion never got that far,” according to the News Service of Florida. Edgerton has made a living for years off the the controversial contradiction he embodies: a black man traveling the country espousing the greatness of the Confederacy and its symbol, the Confederate flag. […]
Hey H.K., before you get on your rant about how blacks and white neo-confederates have so much in common, let’s consider the legions of black Union troops massacred at Fort Pillow, TN and at Plymouth, N.C. (1864).
And what about those Union regiments of southerners from NC, TN and KY? Are these SOUTHERNERS also to be denied memorials in the south because they fought for the other side? The Civil War was not fought between North and South (those were just points on a compass) but by Union Preservationist vs Seperatist Rebels, with northerners and southerners serving both sides (Confederate General Pemberton was from the north while Union General George Thomas, the “Rock of Chickamauga”, was from Virginia).
We should not let H.K. and his ilk confuse this issue. “The South” belongs to ALL Americans, not just the ones whseo great-grandaddy fought for Marse Lee.
Union troops should be honored for what they were: AMERICANS who LIBERATED Florida (and the rest of the Confederacy) from an illegal seizure by an illegitimate government.
And I say this as a descendant of no fewer than THREE Confederate soldiers.